


The Perfect Storm

by allthetrek



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 08:04:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17914997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthetrek/pseuds/allthetrek
Summary: You and Captain Pike are waiting out an ice storm on a frigid Class P planetoid. You bunker down inside the shuttlepod, unable to lift off until the storm passes. The shuttle’s environmental controls malfunction (of course they do…), causing the temperature to plummet. Don’t panic, the captain has enough warmth for the both of you.





	The Perfect Storm

It appeared that there was once a civilization on this now barren, frost-bitten wasteland of a planetoid. Sensors couldn’t penetrate the elemental particulate matter in the frigid atmosphere, so you and Captain Pike had taken a shuttle down to the surface. Truth be told, it had been a while since the two of you had gotten some time alone together, and the Captain had selected you specifically to accompany him.

You were one of the most brilliant science officers he’d ever had the pleasure of having on his roster. You had caught his eye from day one; your ingenuity and unorthodox approaches to problems had made you invaluable to the captain. Besides your intellect, though, he had found in you the softness and acceptance that he craved, needed. You became friends, confidants, opening up to each other about your fears, failures, hopes, and dreams. Recently, you had surpassed the boundaries of a platonic relationship, entering the realms of passionate physical connectedness.

The mission had started out smoothly enough. The shuttlepod touched down on the planetoid, and the two of you began surveilling long-buried ruins beneath the fields of ice. You scanned the permafrosted surface with your tricorder as Pike’s eyes scanned your figure in that white subzero suit that hugged your curves in all the right places.

“These ruins are centuries old!” you yelled to Christopher over the wind, which was picking up, biting at your exposed face. His hand came to his temple as he looked at you, blocking a stream of the ice-laced draft from his eyes. “What do you think [Y/N], pre-warp?” he queried, but was interrupted by an alert from the communicator in his pocket.

Christopher put his gloved hand into his pocket, pulling open the communicator. “Pike here!” he yelled, the wind howling over his exclamation.

“Captain, we are detecting a severe storm approaching you. It would be best if you get back to the shuttle and wait it out. There is no way you can take off in the present conditions,” Saru’s voice advised, the transmission patchy and barely audible due to interference from the storm.

“Understood! We’ll head back to the shuttle and wait this one out!” Pike stated to the device, then deposited it back into his pocket. “Come on!” he called out to you, gesturing in the direction back to the shuttle.

The two of you trudged through the layer of ice particles that was now dancing wildly across the frozen ground, obscuring your view. You could barely make out the Captain beside you, his white garments like camouflage in the whirling white landscape around you. He hiked alongside you, careful to never let you out of his sight. He was ever-vigilant, looking out for you; he would never let anything happen to you.

It was getting dark by the time you made it back to the shuttlepod, the red and blue exterior lights mere halos in the snow-laden, blustering atmosphere. Pike slammed the door release and it hissed open, and the two of you clamored inside, closing it behind you. The still air of the shuttlepod was more than welcoming, but you could hear the wind howling outside, the pod shuddering as the wind tore at its exterior.

Christopher pulled off his gloves and sat down at the helm control, notifying Discovery that the two of you had made it back safely. Then, he turned to you, smiling playfully, his face untouched by worry at your situation. “So, looks like we’ll be stuck on this iceberg for a little while… What should we do to pass the time?”

You smiled impishly back at him, throwing your gloves down on the bench by the hatch and walking over to him. You draped your arm across his shoulders, sitting down across his lap, his hands coming around your waist. You looked down at his face, his cheeks pink from the cold and wind, and you leaned down to kiss them slowly and sweetly before placing your lips onto his. You felt him smile into your kiss, his lips pressing into yours passionately. Your lips opened to each other, and your tongues intermingled, the intense warmth of each other’s mouths a stark contrast to your chilled exteriors.

Suddenly, Christopher’s fingers plunged beneath the fabric of your jacket at your waistline, his frosty digits making contact with your warm lower back. “Ahhh!” you squealed, jumping in his lap, but his arms held you in place, torturing you with the cold as he chuckled. Your free hand found the zipper of his jacket and you pulled it down to his chest, then placed your hand into the collar of his shirt, feeling his incredibly warm chest against your glacial fingers.

“Unghh!” he growled in response, one of his hands leaving the warmth of your body to come to his chest, grasping your hand, but he didn’t pull it away from him. He pressed your hand tighter against his chest, warming you from both sides. You giggled in appreciation of his gesture, your sweet smile all the reward he needed, as you leaned in to kiss him again.

Suddenly, a forceful torrent struck the shuttlepod, causing it to tremble loudly. Warning lights lit up the console, and the two of you turned to assess the prompts.

“Environmental controls are malfunctioning. Looks like there’s a damage to the control relay,” the Captain reported as he touched the screen, isolating the location of the issue.

You peered down at the screen. “That area can only be accessed through the exterior aft relay panel. I don’t know if…,” you trailed off, contemplating trying to replace a relay outside in the fierce conditions.

Christopher cut you off, “There’s no way in hell we’re going back out there. We’ll be fine if we bunker down in here and wait it out. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you warm…,” he said, his hands coming back around your waist, pulling you into him, his coy smile returning.

“You promise?” you asked, beaming back at him, feeling so comfortable in his arms. He had a way of calming you, making you feel like everything was going to be okay. And it was. He gave you one more peck on the lips in response. Yes, he promised.

The temperature inside the shuttle was already starting to plummet with the environmental controls offline. It was about to start getting very chilly. You felt Chris shift beneath you and took his cue to stand up. He stood up with you, his arm never leaving your waist as he walked you both over to the storage compartment near the hatch.

You opened the metal compartment; inside was everything you could need to survive on various classes of planets or in the vacuum of space. Today, your mission had shifted to avoid freezing to death on a Class P ice cube. You pulled out several foil thermal blankets, handing them to Christopher. He wasted no time, throwing one across the metal floor. He turned and grabbed your gloves off the bench nearby, handing them to you. You pulled them on, your fingers already cool from the dropping ambient temperature.

The Captain gestured to the floor. “Shall we?”

You sat down on the thermal blanket, then adjusted to a lying position, Christopher coming down beside you. He threw the other thermal blanket over the two of you, reaching across your torso and legs to tuck it in around your body. Then, he lay beside you, tucking it around himself and pulling his hood around his head for warmth and comfort.

You did the same with yours before nestling into him, your head coming to rest on his chest as his arm came around you, securing you tightly against him. His gloved hand came to meet yours under the blanket, grasping it at his chest. You sighed into him, relaxing as best you could in the cool space, your breath just slightly visible now as you exhaled in unison.

The gale outside accosted the shuttle, the metal groaning at times from the contact. It was pitch dark outside now; the black void barely visible through the shuttlepod windows, now caked with ice crystals on the exterior. It would be a few hours until the storm passed, but neither of you cared much. You were here, in each other’s arms, huddling together for body heat, the passion you ignited within each other making it almost impossible to be cold.

Another strong gust rocked the pod, the wail of the wind echoing loudly around the two of you. Christopher felt you tense in his arms, you breathing picking up a bit. Maybe you did care just a little…

“So, did you get a chance to analyze those readings?” he asked, giving you a much welcome distraction from your thoughts about the various fates that awaited you in here.

“Some, yes, the readings show there was a pre-warp civilization here, you were right…,” you said, trailing off as another squall attacked your sanctuary.

“And…?” Christopher prodded, his voice soft and encouraging, his calm demeanor easing you slightly. You took a deep breath, gathering your thoughts.

“And… The presence of anti-matter precursors indicate they were on the verge of a technological age, including possibly space exploration. It came at the wrong time, though, because their sun had already begun its collapse, long ago. Each year, it’s rays would have grown less potent, its wavelengths no longer able to sustain the life here. The inhabitants likely focused their resources on survival, unable to continue pursuits of scientific advancement while facing their inevitable demise.” Your voice was steady, but Christopher knew you well. He could detect the notes of sorrow as you spoke. You were empathetic, you felt for those that had been here, and he did too.

“A fair assessment,” he replied, “How do you feel about what happened here?”

No one ever asked you how you felt about things. Just Christopher. It was one of the reasons you cared for him so much. He wasn’t afraid to talk about such things, to delve into the depths of the psyche, the things that make us human. His fingers stroked over yours, the fabric between you an unfortunate barrier. You thought for a moment and continued.

“To have advanced to such a degree, pre-warp but on the verge of space exploration… So close to the wonders outside of your own star system. Then to be wiped out completely, buried and forgotten. All that potential, the knowledge, the life… What was the point?” you asked rhetorically, as your mind pulled at the depths of existentialism, trying to find meaning in what happened here.

Christopher gazed sweetly down at you, as you looked up from his chest into his icy blue orbs. His gaze always made you feel like he could see straight into your core, your soul. He saw all of you, and every part he uncovered he embraced. He was falling in love with you. Your vulnerable moments with him, that’s when his feelings further flourished. He felt honored that you could open up to him, and vice versa.

“But they’re not forgotten. We found them, and we’ll study them, add them to the Federation database. It’s what we do. It’s why we do it,” he breathed down at you, his confident expression one you were used to seeing when he spoke of the Federation.

You peered into his eyes, discovering something new about him every time you did so. This time, you weren’t seeing a Starfleet captain, but a young boy looking up at the stars, wondering what else was out there. Dreaming of exploring his own curiosity, offering himself to the stars, the beings beyond, and being of service to all of it, to everything. Shouldering a responsibility few could bear, and that few truly understood.

A responsibility of not just the lives of others, but of those who once lived. This planetoid, with its history, was part of his responsibility. Cataloguing the cosmos, getting to the truth of existence, and safeguarding that truth against those who would threaten the harmony of the universe. That was who he was, and that was who he saw in you.

In that moment, you could only smile at Christopher. He truly had a heart of latinum, and you were so happy that he shared his heart with you now. You nestled in against his chest once more, the warmth of his heart enveloping you, as the two of you waited for the storm to pass, almost wishing it could go on longer.


End file.
